


Intersections: Choices and Consequences

by Caedus501



Series: Intersections [4]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Glacially Slow Burn, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 14:31:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10573227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caedus501/pseuds/Caedus501
Summary: Now that they were on Eadu, less than a kilometer from her father, her driving passion was back and all of it focused on extracting Galen Erso from amid a well defended Imperial installation.  It was something of a problem for Cassian who had orders to assassinate the man, not save him.  For the first time since he had joined the Rebellion when he was ten, Cassian wasn’t sure he would be able to carry out his mission.***A moment during the action of Rogue One that explores how events might have unfolded if Jyn and Cassian had indeed known each other prior to being forced together for a mission to Jedha.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to all of you who have read, commented, kudo'd, and discussed this series thus far! If you like your Rogue One as is on film and in the novelization then I salute you and say take the first three parts of "Intersections" as my offering of backstory and explanation that leads, in my opinion, directly into the film. If, however, you've been wondering how a background of knowing one another and working together in the past might affect or change the way things went down in Rogue One then read on! This interlude is just the first part of my efforts to delve into the story of Rogue One and explore how these characters as I have interpreted them would handle things.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it.

_Intersections_

Interlude: _Choices and Consequences_

 

**Approximately 2-3 days BBY**

 

Cassian stood in the pounding rain of Eadu letting the water plaster his hair to his forehead and slip past the collar of his jacket while he tried to keep his balance on the rocky surface of the planet.  The narrow beam of light he swept over the ship that had, until very recently, been flying through the turbulent atmosphere showed him nothing but damage from their crash landing.  He let out a curse in his native Festian.  The U-wing wouldn’t fly again without numerous repairs they had neither the time nor the parts to complete.  They’d have to ditch it.  Fortunately, he thought he heard the Imperial pilot, Bodhi Rook, mention a shuttle depot just ahead of their position in the darkness.  Cassian gave up his inspection and hurried back into the relative warmth of the downed ship.

This miserable planet was apparently where Cassian’s current troubles had begun.  Officially, according to Bodhi, this Imperial base was a kyber refinery.  It actually made since to Cassian that Galen Erso, the crystallographer turned weapons designer, would be kept here where he could continue his research.  Bodhi told them that he had met Galen Erso and become curious about what was being done on Eadu with all the shipments of kyber crystal he had been sent to Jedha to collect over and over again.  By any sort of reckoning Erso was a smart man: either a scientist capable of building a planet killer or a master saboteur at the heart of the Empire’s biggest weapon.  Someone that clever would have no trouble piecing together information from a pilot who had a tendency to get talkative when he was nervous and learn that Saw Gerrera was also on Jedha causing trouble.  Some reading between the lines of Jyn’s half told stories and Bodhi’s repetitions of the elder Erso’s words had Cassian assuming that Gerrera and Erso had known each other in the years before the scientist had been conscripted by the Empire.  If Galen knew that his daughter had been raised by Gerrera, then it made sense that he would use Bodhi to reach out to her and the Partisan leader through a message that spoke of secret traps and hope for the Rebellion.  If Cassian had just seen the message he might even believe it.

But he hadn’t seen it.  Only Jyn had heard her father’s words and they had left her in a frankly frightening state of emotional blankness.  If there was one thing he could count on from Jyn it was her fire and her anger, yet it seemed that anytime she was faced with what her father had become she emptied out.  Now that they were on Eadu, less than a kilometer from her father, her driving passion was back and all of it focused on extracting Galen Erso from amid a well defended Imperial installation.  It was something of a problem for Cassian who had orders to assassinate the man, not save him.  For the first time since he had joined the Rebellion when he was ten, Cassian wasn’t sure he would be able to carry out his mission.

All eyes turned to him as he reentered the small passenger bay and began to peel off his wet jacket.  “The ship is useless, we’ll have to hope there’s an Imperial craft in the depot that we can steal.”  He pulled on his warmest, waterproof coat and belted it around his waist to keep it secure.  “We’ll grab anything that might be useful and transfer it, then Kay will burn any sensitive information in the ship’s computers and logs.  Hopefully the storm keeps us hidden for that long.  Bodhi, you’re coming with me.”  He punctuated the order by shoving a rain poncho and helmet with a small, but powerful, light on it into the pilot’s hands.

“What? Where?”

“Up the rise to see what we’re up against.”

“Then I’m coming with you,” Jyn announced.  Cassian knew it was coming, but he still wasn’t happy about it.  He couldn’t complete his mission if she was at his elbow watching his every move.

“No, you’re the messenger,” he tried, “You’re the only one who saw the message on Jedha, we can’t risk losing that.”

“You said no one would believe me anyway.  We need my father alive, so I am going to help you get him away from the Empire.”

Cassian shook his head and tried to deny her one last time.  “I’m just looking, a bit of reconnaissance to figure out how we’re going to handle this.”

Jyn didn’t answer this time, she just continued throwing her own rain poncho over her clothes and strapping on a helmet.  She had made her position clear.  Jyn was going with him and nothing short of a tranquilizer shoved into her neck would stop her.  He thought about those fierce gray-green eyes and the way she had unhesitatingly taken out an entire squad of stormtroopers on Jedha and before that a similar squad on Talus.

There was not enough distance from one end of the galaxy to the other to keep himself safe from Jyn Erso if he were foolish enough to risk drugging her and preventing her from seeing her father.

Cassian sighed to himself as he felt a conclusion crystallizing in his mind.  Who was he kidding?  He already knew that he wouldn’t end up pulling the trigger if he were to take his blaster up on the ridge for a sniper shot.  Part of it had to do with Jyn and how Galen’s death would shatter her, but the larger part was Cassian simply wanting to believe that the story from the message about a flaw in the design of the weapon that could lead to its destruction was true.  He wouldn’t be able to confirm the claim if the man was dead.  No matter how many lives Erso was responsible for ending by giving the Empire the ability to destroy whole planets, billions more lives may be at stake if the Rebellion couldn’t find a way to neutralize the aptly named Death Star.

Besides if he was actually going to attempt an extraction then two pairs of trained eyes would be better than one.  And the odds were ten to one Jyn would just follow him anyway – she really didn’t respond well to orders – and he’d rather keep her where he could see her.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Chirrut cock his head in Cassian’s direction and a knowing smile lit the Guardian’s lips.  Cassian had the odd feeling that the blind man knew what he was thinking almost as soon as he thought it and approved of his decision.  The monk may claim that he wasn’t a Jedi, but judging by the stories Cassian had heard about the Force users Chirrut was certainly mysterious enough to be one.

Baze watched the proceedings with a general air of unconcern about having crash landed in Imperial territory and remained unfazed by Jyn’s demands.

“Alright, Bodhi, you show Jyn and me the best place to get eyes on the compound, the rest of you see what can be done here and be prepared to leave on short notice.  Kay, try to get those comms working.”  Cassian turned to Jyn and Bodhi, the former hard eyed and determined as she checked the power pack on her blaster; the latter a bit twitchy as he glanced between the blaster rifle in Cassian’s hands and the girl at his side.  “Any questions?”

“Do I need one?” Bodhi asked with a gesture at the weapon in Cassian’s grasp.

Jyn tried and failed to cover a snort at the pilot’s question, but Bodhi just looked concerned.

“No, you’ll be fine,” Cassian said, trying to sound reassuring.  “Let’s go.”

They ventured out into the dark and the rain to gaze down at the cluster of lights that dotted the wet, rocky landscape and indicated the bounds of the installation.

Jyn started straight for a gap in the rocks through which evenly spaced lights were visible and seemed to indicate a ladder that led directly up a sheer rock wall.

“No, no! This way,” Bodhi said, stopping Jyn with a tug on her arm.  “You can’t see anything from down there.”

Cassian immediately followed the pilot, but Jyn lingered, gazing down at the lights.  It seemed clear to Cassian that what she wanted to do was less seeing and more rescuing.  Such impulsive thinking wouldn’t do them any good.  He had to find a way to snap her out of the one track mindset she had fallen into back on Jedha or she would be no help to him at all.  “Jyn, come on!” he called to her.

She reluctantly followed.

The path they climbed up wasn’t easy and the ground alternated between hard rock, loose scree, and boot-sucking mud.  The terrain forced Cassian to focus on where he was placing his foot with each step, which meant he was only half listening to Bodhi babble about meeting Galen Erso by chance in the mess hall and how the older man had helped Bodhi to see that acquiescing to the Empire wasn’t the only choice he had in his life.  It was all information he had already told them one way or another so Cassian couldn’t tell whose benefit the story was for.  Maybe Bodhi just needed to hear it for himself since Jyn didn’t seem to be listening either.  She was still lost in her own personal thoughts.

“How much further?” Cassian called ahead to the pilot.

Bodhi paused mid-ramble and took a moment to get his bearings.  “Just up here, another fifteen meters or so.”  He made the rest of the climb in silence.

The lookout point Bodhi led them to wasn’t much, but once Cassian had gotten out his quadnocs he did actually have a decent view of a platform that extended from an outcropping of rock and led straight into the heart of the complex.   Several brightly lit buildings were in evidence as well as some industrial looking modules that Cassian couldn’t identify the purpose of.  There were troopers posted everywhere:  Along the walls, near several sets of doors, arrayed around the perimeter, hovering near their olive green clad commanding officers, and keeping an eye on a cluster of older men in pale coveralls who looked distinctly out of place and rather disgruntled at being rousted in the middle of the night to stand in the cold, dark rain.

Something was definitely not right about the scene down below on the platform.

He handed the quadnocs over to Bodhi, careful to pass them behind Jyn so that she couldn’t intercept them.  She made an impatient noise at his caution, but didn’t attempt to take them.  “Bodhi, is that normal down there?” he asked the pilot.

Bodhi took a brief look and began shaking his head immediately.  “They don’t bring the scientists out for deliveries.  Usually cargo transfers are overseen by just a few stormtroopers and a deck technician.  I don’t know what’s going on.”

“Let me see!” Jyn said, at last fed up with being kept out of the loop.  She scanned the platform, her head moving back and forth slowly a few times as she took everything in.  “You’re right, they’re waiting for something.  The stormtroopers are all formed up.  Maybe there’s going to be an inspection of some kind?”

Cassian was actually surprised that she was making coherent observations and not simply bemoaning the whole exercise because it wasn’t direct action to find Galen.  Those years of combat training with Saw Gerrera must have been deeply ingrained.

“Do you see your father?” he asked her quietly, half hoping she wouldn’t hear him over the rain.

“No, I don’t think he’s—“ she broke off abruptly with a gasp.  “Papa!” The word left Jyn in a ragged whisper.  It was as if she had been hit in the gut and all her breath had been forced out of her.  It was an understandable reaction.  Cassian could only imagine how he would react to seeing his parents alive again after all these years.

She shoved the quadnocs back into his arms and turned blazing bright eyes on him.  Her old fire was back and brighter than ever.

“He’s down there,” she said, “The one in the dark uniform.”

Cassian looked back down at the platform and, sure enough, a dark figure that had been blocked by a gaggle of engineers was in full view now.  He compared the man on the platform to the pictures he recalled from the Alliances’s files on Galen Erso.  He looked mostly the same, older certainly, more lines around his eyes and mouth, his hair a steely gray, but what stood out was how tired he looked.  Erso’s shoulders sagged as if he couldn’t bear the weight of the weapon he had brought into existence.

And he had Jyn’s eyes, deep and soulful.  Cassian was right to think earlier that he wouldn’t be able to kill this man.  Even if he had come up here with his weapon ready to fire, the sight of Jyn’s eyes on another’s face would have brought him up short.

If Cassian was honest with himself, Erso didn’t look very much like someone who was overjoyed at the completion and successful test of a superweapon that had taken years to plan and build.  It lent credence to the man’s story about plotting a way to destroy his creation even as it was being polished to a deadly shine.  It also made Jyn’s steadfast belief in her father that much more credible.

Cassian took a deep breath and felt the last dregs of Draven’s directive to kill Galen Erso wash away.  Was he really going to do this?  Was he actually going to sneak onto an Imperial base to extract an asset with no disguise and only Jyn for backup?  It seemed the answer was yes.

“What’s the best way down there?” Cassian asked the twitchy pilot.

Bodhi studied the landscape again before answering.  “There’s a cargo turbolift on the side of the complex off to our right,” he began and pointed down the side of the small mountain.  “It should come out near the back of the platform.  There will be plenty of guards though.”

“We can deal with them,” Jyn said firmly.  “But beyond that, do you have a plan?” That last part was directed at Cassian.

Cassian had nothing.  He was still a little shocked that he was even considering going ahead with the extraction.  “I guess we’ll improvise.  You ought to like that.”  He smirked at a memory of Jyn lecturing him on being able to roll with the punches while they were working together on Brentaal.

“If you say so,” she muttered in response and gave him a strange look, like improvisation was the last thing she expected from him.  Mostly her expression told him she hadn’t caught on to his reference of their shared past.  It saddened him a bit, which he knew wasn’t something he should be focused on at the moment.  Furthermore, Jyn hadn’t exactly been in the best frame of mind since being rescued from Wobani and especially after losing Saw on Jedha.  Perhaps he should just tell her who he was, it might even help gain her trust or cooperation if she knew they had already made it through a few battles together, but they really didn’t have the time for any sort of discussion right now.  A chill was starting to set into his bones from the cold rain and Cassian didn’t want to sit on the ridge any longer than he had to.

“Bodhi, you get down to the depot and find us—“ Cassian broke off mid-sentence as his brain finally registered the low rumble he had been hearing for several seconds.  It was the sound of engines building to a crescendo as a ship approached from behind.  “Get down!” he barked out and pulled his companions low to the ground.

He glanced upward and saw that the ship was a _Delta_ -class Imperial shuttle.  That meant it was for passengers, not cargo, and someone of sufficient rank to warrant his own ship.

The time for observation was over.

As soon as the ship was past Cassian turned back to the pilot, “Get down to the depot and get us a ship.  Have Kay help you prep and load it.”

Bodhi just looked back at him with wide eyes.

Jyn, on the other hand, had already taken off in the direction of the lift Bodhi had mentioned.  Cassian had barely even noticed her leave, her departure silent and quick as she slipped into the night.  He couldn’t let her get too far ahead of him.  There was no telling what she would do on that platform.

But the pilot was still standing nervously in front of Cassian, seemingly rooted to the spot.

“Get going!” Cassian urged.

“What are you going to…?”

“Now! Go!” he tried again, this time he gave the man a light shove to get his feet moving.  Finally, Bodhi did as instructed and Cassian hurried after Jyn.

The way down the rocky slope wasn’t any easier than the way up had been and Cassian was frankly surprised at how far ahead Jyn had managed to get without falling over the loose rock and mud.  The rain didn’t appear to be letting up any time soon which made vision in the dark canyon even worse.  What worried Cassian the most, however, was that the further down he went, the less he could see of the platform.  The path, such as it was, led to a faint glow among the rocks some fifty meters ahead but it dropped him well below the level of the brightly lit main entrance to the compound so he had no way of knowing who was stepping out of that shuttle or why a group of scientists and engineers appeared to be the favored welcome party.

Coming out of a lift to such unknown circumstances was less than ideal, but Cassian couldn’t really see a way around it.

The sound of a sharp angry voice from above floated down to him with the rain.  Whatever was happening, it didn’t sound good.

Another minute’s struggle over a low hill rewarded him with the sight of a pair of turbolift doors closing on Jyn while two white clad stormtrooper guards lay unmoving in the mud.

“No, Jyn!  Wait!” he yelled at her, but the swirling rain stole his words and dashed them against the rocks before they could reach their target.

Cassian cursed and sped up as much as he dared on the treacherous ground.  There was nothing he could do but wait for the lift to make its way back down and hope that Jyn kept her head and didn’t go rushing onto the platform in a one woman assault.  She would be vastly outnumbered and outgunned.

As an indicator light above the lift door announced the car’s return, a hail of blasterfire sounded above the rain.  Cassian sincerely hoped that it wasn’t a squad of guards all firing at a suddenly present Jyn.

“Come on, come on!” He urged the lift upward with all possible haste.  His blaster was raised in front of him, ready for whatever might greet him on the other side of the door.

When he finally reached the platform, Cassian wasn’t entirely surprised to find two more guards dead or unconscious on the floor and a third with a struggling Jyn in his grasp.  Fortunately, Bodhi had been right, they were on the side of the main building around a corner and out of view so there was no backup coming to help subdue Jyn.  There was only Cassian.  He took a few steps forward to get a better angle on the trooper and fired two quick shots, hoping the noise would be lost among the rainfall.  The arms around Jyn’s neck fell away and she tipped forward coughing and massaging her crushed windpipes.

“You alright?” he asked, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder.

“I slipped on a puddle and he got behind me,” Jyn said by way of explanation.

If she was concerned about a misstep in her combat prowess then she was clearly fine.  He let his mind skip forward to contemplate their next move.  “There was a barrage of blasterfire just a few moments ago so be careful and stay out of sight until we can assess the situation.”

Thankfully she didn’t argue.  Jyn fell in behind him as he moved in a half crouch along the wall toward the main platform.

The situation was nothing like what Cassian expected.  As he crouched among cargo crates just behind the line of sight of a couple of stormtroopers he catalogued everything within view for reference should an opportunity present itself.  The Imperial shuttle was perched on a landing pad, its ramp down, doors open and waiting for the return of its passengers.  In front of the ship stood a precise line of tall troopers in sleek black plastoid armor, each one with a heavy blaster rifle raised and trained on someone kneeling on the ground.  Cassian had never even heard of a class of stormtrooper that wore all black armor, not even when he was undercover with the Imperial Security Bureau or during his months with the Imperial Navy.  The design wasn’t just a black version of standard trooper armor either.  The lines were sharper and more streamlined, the helmet closer fitting, the gear they carried more advanced and specialized.  Whatever their official designation, Cassian instinctively knew that tangling with them would cost him his life in short order.  He hoped Jyn wouldn’t take the appearance of their deadly efficiency as a challenge.

In front of the black clad troopers was an equally troubling scene.  The ground was littered with the bodies of the engineers he had seen earlier, scorch marks from blaster bolts evident amid the white and light blue of their coveralls.  Their lifeless corpses probably what a female officer not far from Cassian’s position was referring to when she muttered, “Kriffing hell!  That was the entire department!”  The man kneeling among his fellows in a dark precisely tailored science officer’s tunic, Cassian belatedly realized, was Galen Erso.  He looked as if he’d been struck and a man in a white uniform and cape paired with a black peaked cap was bent over to look Erso in the eyes as he made some point.

“It’s him!” Jyn hissed.  Cassian glanced over at her to see her eyes locked on the man in white with an alarming intensity.  “Krennic!” She spat the name out like it was the foulest thing she had ever tasted.  Clearly she had history with the Imperial officer who was currently accosting her father. Cassian worried that the hatred in her voice would spill over into action and distract her from their goal of getting the elder Erso off Eadu alive.  Between Jyn’s boiling anger and Galen being the center of Krennic’s attention at the moment, it was starting to look like stealth wasn’t going to be a winning strategy for this mission, but they really didn’t have the numbers or the firepower to take on all of the soldiers and garrison officers arrayed before them.  Especially not with those black specters of death hovering in the background.

He needed help and he wasn’t sure where to get it.  Kay and Bodhi were hopefully busy finding them all a way off this sodden rock and the two Guardians were a bit too unpredictable in a fight for his liking.  He didn’t know them well enough to be able to coordinate with them from afar and if they didn’t get this, whatever _this_ was, just right the consequences could be disastrous.

“Cassian, do you read me? Cassian?”  Kay-Tu’s voice sounded from the comlink in his jacket.

“Kay!  You got the comms working.”

“Affirmative.  But we have a problem.”  _Only one?_ Cassian thought to himself.  “There’s an Alliance squadron on the way.  We must clear the area.”

“No, no, no – tell them to pull back!  We’re on the platform!”

Kay didn’t reply.  Cassian hoped it was because he was contacting Alliance command to get them to break off the attack.

Jyn had noticed his distress even if she hadn’t heard Kay’s message.  “What is it?” she asked.

Any answer he might have given was drowned out by a shrill alarm that pierced the air throughout the complex.  It sounded like a standard Imperial proximity alert which meant the incoming ships weren’t friendly to the Empire.  He had wanted help and here it came, Cassian could hardly be picky about how Chirrut’s Force seemed to make a mockery of his every plea to the universe.  He lifted his eyes to the sky along with everyone else on the platform, including Krennic.  It was difficult to tell through the rain and in the dark, but the configuration of lights on the incoming ships was indeed familiar. 

The Alliance had sent a squadron of X-wings to Eadu.

If Draven had ordered the fighters to Eadu then their true purpose, of course, was not to provide air support for a rescue operation, but to ensure that Galen Erso was eliminated and the mission completed.  That meant anyone in the open air of the platform was in danger.

So, naturally, Jyn broke cover and ran into plain view as soon as the first wave of cannon fire struck the buildings and cargo crates around them causing the air to burst into flame, hot sparks sizzling in the rain.

“Father!”  Her voice ripped through the air above the constant patter of the rain, louder than the shouts of confused and injured soldiers, even cutting through the whine of starfighter engines.  Her cry was harsh and plaintive all at the same time, filled with bitter longing and hope.  Jyn shouted for her father as though it was all she had been thinking about for fifteen years.

Cassian watched, somewhat horrified, as the ground shook beneath him with the impact of the X-wings’ strafing run.  It hadn’t been only Galen who turned at the sound of Jyn’s voice, Krennic and several closer officers also suddenly focused on the Rebel inexplicably in their midst.  A slightly dazed Galen took several steps in the direction of the compound where Jyn was standing, transfixed.  Krennic looked almost unnerved and pulled a blaster off his hip to aim at Jyn.

Cassian tried to get to Jyn to pull her back to safety, but there was suddenly a stormtrooper blocking his vision and he had to act fast to get his blaster up before the trooper could pull his own trigger.  When his foe was down another quickly took his place and Cassian found himself ducking further behind the nearest crate for cover.  Jyn was still entirely exposed.

Just as he was going to try to make another attempt to get her out of the line of fire, a barrage of bombs hit the platform.  Anyone standing was thrown off their feet.  Debris and deadly shrapnel ripped through unarmored bodies and left bloody streaks across the floor that were quickly washed away with the rain.  Cassian got himself to his knees and shook his head to try and clear it of the ringing the blast had left in his ears.  He looked about himself frantically for Jyn.  She was already up and crawling toward a faintly stirring shape on the ground that must have been her father.  “Papa!  Papa,” she called sounding desperate.

It seemed to get his attention.  Galen Erso sat up quickly, wincing in apparent pain from the motion.  A cursory once over of the scientist showed that he was largely uninjured.  Those steps he had taken away from the edge of the platform and toward Jyn had probably saved his life.  Cassian took aim at a stormtrooper that had raised his blaster in response to Jyn’s call and dropped him back to the ground with one shot.

Cassian watched as father and daughter embraced for the first time in years.  The sight made him think about what Jyn had said on Talus about not all parents wanting to know or keep in touch with their children, but he could tell just by the way Galen clutched at his daughter like she was a lifeline in the vacuum of space that Jyn’s assumption didn’t apply to him.  It had only been concern for her safety that had kept him distant over the long years.  Their reunion tugged at Cassian somewhere deep in his chest so he focused his attention on the danger still surrounding them on all sides instead.

A squadron or two of Imperial TIE fighters had joined the battle and were trying to shoot the X-wings out of the sky.  The darkness was lit up by the crisscrossing bursts of red and green energy as the fight roared overhead.  Several turbolaser emplacements stationed around the installation thundered their disapproval of the Alliance intrusion.  Chaos reigned as fighters on both sides started falling through the air in deadly spirals of fire.

The situation had escalated quickly and it was high time Cassian and all the Ersos he could get his hands on got out of the target zone.  He returned his focus to the pair standing now, but huddled close in their own little world, oblivious as Cassian did his best to keep the Empire from intruding.  In his peripheral vision he saw the man in white get pulled onto his shuttle by a couple of his elite guard while the rest of the black armored troopers fanned out around the ship to hold off any advances from either air or platform.  At least Krennic’s departure gave Cassian one less thing to worry about.  He moved closer to Jyn and her father, his finger just hovering above the trigger of his blaster as he swept his gaze from side to side, determined to get them to start moving toward the lift.

He only felt a little peculiar when he couldn’t help but eavesdrop on their conversation.

“Look at you, Jyn.  My Stardust,” Galen said laying a hand on his daughter’s cheek.  “You’ve grown so big and beautiful and brave.  You look so like your mother.”

“Papa,” her voice broke with the word, “you look so old.” Jyn finished with a sound that was half laugh and half sob.

“There’s so much I want to tell you, Stardust.”

Cassian had to interrupt their moment.  They could talk in the ship Bodhi was hopefully securing for them, but right now they had to move.  “Jyn!” he said, sharper than he intended, but he didn’t think she’d notice otherwise.  “We have to go.  Both of you, now!”

Jyn seemed to register his words and took a step to follow him, but Galen appeared wary of Cassian and didn’t budge, which brought Jyn to a halt before she had even really gone anywhere.

“Papa, I’ve seen your message,” she said, trying to explain.

Galen’s expression suddenly turned haunted, all the joy at finding his daughter had left him with the reminder of the Death Star.

“It must be destroyed!  There’s still a way to stop it!” he said with certainty.

“I know, that’s why we’re here.” Jyn gestured at herself and Cassian who was trying to make sure their path to the cargo lift stayed clear of enemies.  “You can tell the Alliance what you’ve done.  If we have your help then we don’t need to go to Scarif for the plans.  I remember your brilliant mind, Papa.  You never forget your work.”

Erso only looked half convinced, but he took a step forward nonetheless.

Jyn continued her encouragement.  “We can bring the fight to the Empire, catch them off guard for once.  We can destroy it together!”

“Yes, together.” Galen took another step.  His lagging pace made Cassian want to scream, but impatience wouldn’t help the situation.  He just needed Jyn to coax the man along a bit faster.

One more step. 

A building somewhere in the compound was hit and the resulting boom of the explosion was unbelievably loud.  Heat rolled in a wave across the platform and into the wet night beyond.

A fourth step, this one with more conviction.

Cassian fired at two troopers who were coming up from behind the scientist.  They fell to the ground with a clatter.  Galen looked up, eyes wide in surprise, but it wasn’t the deaths of two troopers that had him stalled in horror.  Cassian turned to track the man’s line of sight and saw the incoming X-wings, cannons blazing with particle energy.  He spun back around to hurry the pair onward, but instead he stumbled backwards a few steps when Jyn fell forcefully into his arms, having been shoved out of the way by her father as a bomb hit the ground just a meter or two behind Galen.  The whole platform shook from the detonation.  Cassian toppled under Jyn’s weight, his head hitting the ground with a sharp crack.  Jyn let out a yelp of pain as a piece of something scraped down the side of her face.

They both lay there dazed and disoriented for a moment, letting the sound of battle wash over them.  Jyn stirred first, a mere blur in Cassian’s watery vision.

“Cassian?”  She said only his name, her voice ticking up just slightly at the end to make it a question, but that single word contained all her worries about his health and safety.  He tried to blink the pain away and answer her, but his reply came out slurred.  “Your father,” was all he managed.

Jyn’s warm weight left him and icy stabs of rain water took her place, soaking through his already sodden coat and trousers.  He sat up slowly, ignoring the flare of agony behind his eyes.  Jyn had reached her father and crouched over him, holding his head in her hands.

“No, Papa!  Don’t leave me!” she begged.

Cassian made out the path of Galen’s hand as he traced his daughter’s cheek with a shaking hand.  “Destroy it.  Stardust.”

His hand dropped and his body sagged in Jyn’s arms.

Galen Erso, architect of the most terrifying weapon the galaxy had ever seen, was dead.  His last acts having been to save his daughter’s life and ask for the destruction of his life’s work.

Jyn clutched at him and called to him plaintively, as though the sound of her voice could recall him from death.  Cassian wanted to turn away and let her have some privacy with her grief, but he knew they couldn’t stay on the platform any longer.  The distinctive screech of TIE fighters was closing fast in hot pursuit of the Alliance X-wings that had laid waste to the Imperial facility.

Cassian got unsteadily to his feet and remembered to pick up his blaster before hurrying over to Jyn.  “Jyn, come on!” he said urgently.

“No, I’ll not leave him.  I’ve got to save him!”

“Jyn, look at me.”  He placed on hand on her shoulder and forced her to meet his gaze.    “He’s gone.  We have to go.”

She looked down at the broken man in her lap and let him slide to the ground.  When she looked back up at Cassian it was not with the same empty eyes she had worn after Jedha, as he had feared might happen.  Instead her bright gray-green eyes focused intently on him and were filled with pain, rage, and shattered hopes.  As he waited for her to take the hand he offered, Cassian saw another X-wing go up in flames when the turbolaser batteries struck home.  It looked like the Empire was gaining the upper hand in the battle despite half their base now laying in ruins. 

Jyn took his outstretched hand with a hard look in her eyes and he pulled her up.  They both unconsciously ducked their heads as a wildly spinning TIE fighter passed low overhead and careened into one of the deadly turbolaser emplacements.  The whole structure exploded with the force of the impact.  Cassian looked briefly back over his shoulder at the dark crags of the landscape as he led Jyn away from the carnage at the center of the platform and thought he saw the distinctive shape of Chirrut’s robes flare out behind the monk as he stood and twirled the peculiar weapon in his hand.  Had the blind man really just taken out a TIE fighter with a handheld weapon?  Maybe there really was something to all that Force nonsense Chirrut was always spouting.  Cassian put the issue from his mind and concentrated on weaving his way through the bodies and debris that littered the ground.  He sidestepped one half-dead trooper’s last desperate effort to stop their escape.

As he and Jyn rounded the corner of the building that housed the cargo lift, they were met with at least two squads of stormtroopers spilling out of the lift doors.  There were too many of them.  Cassian raised his blaster to fire at the oncoming soldiers, but he knew he and Jyn were outnumbered.  It seemed even the woman who had taken on entire squads of stormtroopers singlehandedly in previous encounters didn’t like the odds of their present situation.  She started to pull Cassian back toward the main platform, using the corner of the building as cover. 

It proved unnecessary. 

From somewhere in the distant darkness several fast, precise bolts of hot energy lanced through the air, sending the troopers to the ground one after the other.  Cassian had only seen such deadly accurate, rapid fire shooting once before and it had been on Jedha barely a day ago.

Perhaps Baze Malbus was not as apathetic to the plight of their ragtag group as he appeared.

Cassian made for the now empty cargo lift with Jyn right beside him.  She turned on him when the sounds of battle were cut off by the closed doors.  “Can’t you tell the fighters to draw the TIEs away from the compound and away from us?”

Cassian shook his head.  “They don’t answer to me.  I can’t even hail them.”

Jyn muttered something in response, but most of it was too low for his still ringing ears to pick out.  He thought he recognized the word “useless” fall from her lips though.  He was afraid she was right.  Cassian had been unable to contribute anything of value to this ill-fated venture and it was a new feeling for him.

The lift hit the ground and they bolted into the rain with no fixed direction in mind, only knowing that they had to get _away_.  Cassian had no idea if Bodhi had found another ship by now or if Kay had finished transferring all their gear.  He tried the comlink and got nothing but static in response.  He could only hope that the others weren’t waiting for them down at the depot since he didn’t think he and Jyn would make it there alive.

The slippery, rocky terrain hadn’t improved any since they had made their way down the hillside earlier.  Loose pebbles and mud had them both stumbling, but they pushed on anyway.  A few stray shots from above peppered the ground near them as they ran, but it wasn’t until they had gotten at least halfway up the rise that any real pursuit caught up with them.  The sound of heavy footfalls behind them and the increasing frequency of blasterfire narrowly missing both Cassian and Jyn were telltale signs of numerous stormtroopers closing fast.

Cassian could only hope that the higher ground they occupied, at least for now, would give them some sort of advantage against the greater numbers.

That hope was dashed when, out of nowhere, a ship rose into the air in front of them, blaster cannons primed and ready to fire.  He and Jyn scrambled to a stop and Cassian barely had time to register that the ship was a cargo shuttle and not a fighter before it started shooting.

A shout burst forth from Cassian when he realized the brilliant green bolts of energy _weren’t_ ripping through him, but were aimed at the stormtroopers behind him instead.  The bay door opened and Bodhi stood in the dim square of light looking determined and urgent.  He waved them onboard with frantic motions.

“They’re onboard Kay-Tu!” the Imperial pilot yelled toward the cockpit.

“Wait, wait!  Kay, hold steady!  The Guardians!” said Cassian and he pointed at the two men hurrying through the rain toward the ship.

Once everyone was onboard, wet and dripping and all accounted for, Cassian yelled at Kay to take them out.  The shuttle shot forward with a lurch of G-forces before the inertial compensators kicked in and the droid guided the ship up through the clouds, avoiding a few last parting shots from the Imperial base.  The gentle vibration of the ship once it reached hyperspace was smooth and quiet after the turbulence of the Eadu atmosphere.

For Cassian the quiet was almost suffocating.  He didn’t have to see Bodhi’s disappointment that Galen Erso had not accompanied him and Jyn on their mad dash from the complex to feel it radiating through the confined space.  He didn’t have to look at Jyn to know that she was hurt and angry and liable to explode any second.  He knew that whatever was coming would be bad, but he also knew that he probably didn’t deserve it.  Not this time, at least.  For once, Cassian had tried to save a life, not take one.

Chirrut laid a hand on Cassian’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze before going to sit by his companion on the other side of the compartment.  At least one person knew that Cassian had tried to do the right thing, even if the end result was the opposite of what he had hoped for.

He removed his rain soaked coat and found something dry to put on while he waited for a second storm to break in the small shuttle.

“Did you know?” She finally asked in a voice of deadly calm.  He just looked at her and tried to keep his face blank.  “Did you know the Alliance wanted my father dead?”

Cassian knew he should say something to explain, but he didn’t know how to begin.  So he settled for, “You’re in shock.”

Jyn seemed to take this as confirmation of his complicity in her father’s death.  “Was that your real mission?  To lead the Alliance to my father?”

“No.”  There would be no dancing around the topic.  Cassian decided that getting everything in the open where Jyn could see it would be better in the long run.  She would hate him for now, maybe for a while to come, but eventually reason would reassert itself.  “No, Jyn.  My orders were to kill Galen Erso, not extract him, but I disobeyed those orders before we even left the U-wing.  I’m not a stormtrooper who blindly does as he’s told!”  That much was true.  Cassian had done some awful things for the sake of the Rebellion, but he had always seen the sense in what he was asked to do.  He would weigh his task against his long beaten down morals and usually came to the conclusion that doing what was asked of him, distasteful as it was, could have a wider ranging impact on the greater good.  He had only given Draven an outright “no” once and he had earned a straight three months of desk duty and paperwork for his willful disobedience.

“But it all comes back to you.  Those were Alliance bombs that killed my father.  They only knew where to find him because of you,” she accused. 

It was all true, but for the most part it had all been out of his control.  “There’s a chain of command that I have to follow when something on the scale of the Death Star enters the galactic playing field, but I wouldn’t expect you to understand that.  If it had been anyone else who had built a weapon powerful enough to destroy a planet on that platform, you wouldn’t have hesitated about taking them out.  But because it was your father, because you suddenly had a personal connection to the target everything was supposed to change?”

“You should have told me.”

“It wasn’t relevant.  I decided to believe him, to believe _you_.  I didn’t know the Alliance would send a squadron of fighters after your father.”

“Didn’t you though?” she asked, getting right up in his face, hostility and tension written in every line of her body.  “It’s just the sort of thing the Rebellion would do, even if no one admits it out loud.  It makes the Alliance worse than the Empire in a way.  At least no one would be too surprised that the Empire destroyed a planet of millions of people.  But the Alliance too has done its fair share of dirty work, hasn’t it?”

Cassian took a step back and tried to school his expression into impassivity.  She was getting dangerously close to some of his own musings in his darkest moments.  “What are you talking about?  What would you know of how the Alliance operates?”

“You forget that I grew up with Saw Gerrera,” she said and smiled nastily.  “I know exactly how far we went before Alliance High Command drew a line in the sand and started calling us extremists.  I know all about the ideals the Rebellion touts about freedom, justice, equality, and fairness.  You pander to the galaxy about abiding by the laws of a society built on peace not war, and then you turn around and disregard those rules as soon as they become inconvenient.  Tell me, how many people have you been asked to assassinate, Captain Andor?”

Now Cassian was angry.  Where did she get off lecturing him about the ideals of the Rebellion he had dedicated his life to?  She was a criminal and a drifter who only looked out for her own interests.  She had no idea what sacrifices he had made for something that would always be so much greater than he could ever be on his own.

He finally pushed back at her anger and matched it with his own.  “Suddenly the Rebellion’s ideals are real for you?  After all these years?  We don’t all have the luxury of deciding when and where we want to care about something.” He let out a disgusted huff.  “Wars aren’t pretty.  Your ideals can’t keep you safe.  I learned that when I was just six years old!  You’re not the only one who’s lost everything.”  He took a step back and looked her up and down, letting some of his disappointment at her chosen lifestyle show through.  “Some of us just decided to do something about it.”

“You still should have told me.  You can’t talk your way around that.”

Cassian circled around her and leaned in close, “I don’t have to.”  His movement put him closer to the ladder that led up to the cockpit.  If he didn’t leave the cargo bay soon with all its staring eyes and tension so thick he could taste it, he feared something worse than harsh words might be exchanged.  “Anyone else?” he demanded from the base of the ladder.  He glared at each one of them, daring anyone to further accuse him of acting without consideration of the consequences, both personal and political. 

“Yavin Four,” he barked at Bodhi, a bit harsher than the pilot truly deserved, “Make sure they know we’re coming in with a stolen ship.”

With Jyn’s accusations replaying in his head, he retreated up the ladder to find relief in the quiet of the small cockpit where there was no one but Kay-Tu to bother him.  He knew the droid had heard every word of the shouting match below, but he also knew that Kay wouldn’t ask him about it.  Kay’s silence had less to do with a lack of curiosity about the situation, and more to do with the amount of time the two of them had spent together with Kay learning Cassian’s moods.  The former Imperial droid may not have the best grasp on the complexities of human behavior, but he could tell when there were things that Cassian wouldn’t or couldn’t talk about, so he thankfully refrained from any speech at all.

It was only after a few minutes of sitting and staring blankly at the bright stretching and bending of space around the ship that Cassian realized he was shaking.  He didn’t think it was from the cold or the damp, it wasn’t even the lingering anger that made his hands tremble.  He was shaking because he had come to the realization that what Jyn had said was true.  Had the Rebellion he served come to inhabit the shadows so slowly that he hadn’t even noticed the change?  With each deliberate act of sabotage, every kill, every atrocity he and others had been a part of when undercover, the Alliance to Restore the Republic had begun to lose its way and Cassian had slipped into the gray right alongside it.  The Rebellion had become a mere band of troublemakers who were trying to fight their way to change with violence and conflict, council approved or not, instead of making attempts at diplomacy.  Was every cruel act he’d performed on their behalf truly justified or just rationalized for his own peace of mind?

Was it possible for Cassian to keep fighting the Empire without losing himself along the way?

He didn’t have an answer and he didn’t know who would.  All he could do at the moment was figure out how to help a young woman who had lashed out at him in pain and brought some bitter truths into the light of day so that they couldn’t be shoved aside one more time.  He recalled Bodhi’s tremulous words during the flight from Jedha to Eadu about why he had decided to defect.  _He said I could make it right if I was brave enough to listen to what was in my heart and do something about it._ It seemed like apt advice for Cassian too.  The fact that it had been Galen Erso who had first said those words to the pilot was an irony not lost on Cassian.

The Death Star had to be destroyed, he knew that, Jyn knew that, the hold full of people he had dragged off a murdered planet knew that.  Without Jyn’s father to provide them with the details the Rebellion would need for such a mission, an expedition to Scarif would have to be made to retrieve the plans that Galen had mentioned in his message.  Cassian didn’t know if the Council would actually approve what amounted to an act of war.  He had been in enough Council meetings to suspect the outcome would not be in favor of taking such a risk.  Whatever they decided, however, Cassian made his own promise that finding those plans and destroying the weapon would be his first steps toward making it right with the universe.  He only hoped that Jyn would see that he meant it and forgive him long enough to come along.  Cassian would need all the help he could get and having Jyn Erso by his side was worth five men at his back.  Maybe together with Kay and whoever else decided to go with them, they could find some measure of peace for themselves knowing that they had done all they could to change the shape of the impression they left on the galaxy.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, I know that this wasn't Jyn's realization moment that many of you have asked for and I can only tell you that I got a couple thousand words into writing that particular scene and realized it was going to go a lot farther than I originally anticipated. It also seemed to require a bit of context that was in my head, but not written anywhere else, so I stopped on that section to write the Eadu scene instead. Jyn's moment will come, I promise, and hopefully it shall deliver.
> 
> I don't know that it's necessary to explain my decision to still kill off Galen, but I'm going to anyway. 1) With Galen alive and in the hands of the Rebellion there was literally no reason to go to Scarif and that changed both Rogue One and A New Hope far too much for my liking. 2) Any way I slice it, I feel like the vast majority of Jyn's motivations for helping the Alliance and getting the plans to destroy the Death Star stem from wanting to honor the sacrifices her father made and his dying wish that the planet killer be obliterated. I didn't want to take such a defining factor away from her. Feel free to discuss or disabuse me of these notions at your leisure. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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